Canada deports Iran’s 2019 crackdown spokesman: Former interior ministry face of bloody protests deported under Ottawa’s hardline Iran sanctions

Canada has deported a former senior Iranian official who served as a key government spokesman during the deadly nationwide protests of November 2019.

This marks the second removal under Ottawa’s 2022 policy that bars senior Islamic Republic officials from entering or staying in the country, as per Global News report.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed that Syed Salman Samani — who held the posts of deputy interior minister and official spokesperson for Iran’s Interior Ministry — was removed from Canada after a federal court rejected his final appeal against deportation. 

Samani entered Canada on a tourist visa after resigning from his government role, but immigration authorities determined he was “inadmissible” as a “prescribed senior official in the service of a designated regime.”

In his bid to stay, he told the Immigration and Refugee Board that returning to Iran could expose him to “torture, execution or suicide,” according to media reports. 

• In November 2022, Ottawa formally designated Iran’s government as one that engages in terrorism and systematic or gross human rights violations. 

• Under those sanctions, senior officials who served the regime from June 23, 2003 onward are considered inadmissible to Canada. 

• The policy was initially focused on officials from November 2019 onward.

• In September 2024, the Canadian government expanded the measure to hold the Tehran regime accountable, as part of a "continued response to the egregious actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran", adding that Canada is sending a strong message that the country "will not be a safe haven for senior regime members who engage in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations".

• The expansion now covers senior officials dating back to 2003, a move tied to the Zahra Kazemi case and broader accountability for long-standing abuses. 

• Samani is the second former Iranian official deported under these measures, underscoring Ottawa’s willingness to enforce the ban through removals, not just visa cancellations. 

Samani served as deputy interior minister and spokesperson during the November 2019 protests, when security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators across Iran.

• As the Interior Ministry’s public face, he helped promote the regime’s official narrative and counter opposing accounts of the crackdown, according to Canadian authorities.

• The 2019 protests, triggered by a sudden fuel price hike, escalated into broader anti-government demonstrations; independent estimates put the death toll in the hundreds, with thousands arrested. 

• With his appeal dismissed, Samani’s removal clears the way for Canada to enforce more deportations of other designated Iranian officials already in the country or seeking entry. 

• Rights groups and Iranian diaspora advocates are pushing Ottawa to expand enforcement beyond individual cases, arguing that one deportation is not enough to signal accountability for officials tied to repression.